The Three Robbers  

When evening envelops the forest in darkness, strange silhouettes mingle with the twisting shadows of the trees. Three men, dressed in long coats and tall black hats, prowl like spectres in the night. When they appear, the whole forest falls silent and begins to tremble. The first of them, known as the Chatterbox, has a large red axe. The second, nicknamed the Grumpy One, has a big bellows that spits out irritating pepper. The third, known as the Bigleux, is armed with a blunderbuss full of ammunition. These aren't your average brigands, let alone cartoon ones! Every night, they terrorise wealthy travellers, robbing them and then stashing their booty in a cave. It's a well-ordered life of crime and robbery, but one young orphan is about to change all that...
The Alsatian cartoonist Tomi Ungerer has enchanted generations of children with his children's books, sold by the thousands all over the world. Fascinated by his whimsical work, the Opéra national du Rhin commissioned composer Didier Puntos to write a new chamber opera set in the world of one of his best-known titles, The Three Robbers (1961).